


Priceless

by polarised



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Bay Ending, F/F, One Shot, i kinda stole the premise from the comic but shh, pricefield
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23631925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polarised/pseuds/polarised
Summary: There was silence for a while. All Max could hear was the ringing in her ears as her headache intensified. Then, Chloe spoke again, and her voice was clearer than ever before.“Max, can I tell you something?” She whispered, now standing in front of Max, who nodded slowly. Chloe sat down in front of Max and took a deep breath.“I saw the storm too. I was in the storm. With you… or, a version of you.”
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	Priceless

Light flowed into Chloe’s bedroom, tinged red by the flag in front of the window. Max was lying on Chloe’s bed, listening to the birds sing outside. “What’s up, Maximus? You were out for a while, I was starting to worry you’d never wake up,” Chloe said, looking at Max with concern. Instantly, Max felt her head start to throb, like she had just been hit with a crowbar.

“C-Chloe? How…” she muttered as she sat up on the bed, her voice barely a whisper. Chloe laughed slightly, leaning forward in her desk chair to get a good look at Max.

“Dude, did someone slip you something? You’re being weird,” she said nonchalantly. Her voice sounded like it was coming from a million miles away. Max shook her head, blinking repeatedly.

“No - no you’re not real. You can’t be real. You’re d - you died,” Max whispered, which made Chloe cock an eyebrow.

“Uh, okay, now you’re being really weird. How could I be talking to you if I’m dead, Max?” Chloe said, sounding slightly hurt. Max’s voice caught in her throat as her eyes filled with tears.

“Chloe, I’ve m-missed you s-so much,” she finally said between racking sobs. Finally, Chloe seemed to drop her façade and smiled sympathetically, grasping Max’s hand gently.

“I know. I’ve missed you too. How long has it been?” She asked. It took Max a minute before she could speak again.

“I-it’s been 213 days,” she said, tears still flowing down her cheeks. But, Chloe wasn’t crying. She looked happy, content, like someone drifting off as they die…

“Max, you know you did the right thing, don’t you? My parents, your friends, they didn’t deserve to die in a freak storm,” she said softly, tracing circles on Max’s hand with her thumb. Max shook her head vigorously.

“No, no I fucked up Chloe. I could have had a life with you and I threw it away. You didn’t deserve to get killed in a bathroom by Nathan Fucking Prescott,” she said, her voice wavering. As Max spoke, Chloe looked down, a sort of knowing sadness painted on her face. 

“Maybe. I think I would have liked that, spending my life with you,” she said sadly, which made Max’s heart skip a beat. “But we can’t choose our destiny, Max, we just have to take it as it comes, I guess.”

“No, bullshit. If it wasn’t your destiny to be with me, then fuck destiny,” Max shouted, standing up suddenly. “Chloe, there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think of you. Where I don’t think about when I kissed you, or breaking into Blackwell’s swimming pool, or playing detective to find Rachel. I love you. I’ve always loved you. And I know I’ll never be happy now because you’re gone. You’re really, actually gone and I can’t rewind you back. I can’t just step into a different reality where you suddenly exist again. You were everything to me and I threw it away and now I’m miserable. I just…” she slid down the wall of Chloe’s room, until she was sitting on the ground with her knees to her chest. “I want you back. I need you back.”

There was silence for a while. All Max could hear was the ringing in her ears as her headache intensified. Then, Chloe spoke again, and her voice was clearer than ever before.

“Max, can I tell you something?” She whispered, now standing in front of Max, who nodded slowly. Chloe sat down in front of Max and took a deep breath.

“I saw the storm too. I was in the storm. With you… or, a version of you,” she said slowly, causing Max to look up with shock. Her voice failed her once again, but Chloe seemed to understand what she wanted to say. “Yeah, a version of you. She died in my arms, after blinking in and out of time. I guess she pushed herself too hard. But she had told me to stay at the lighthouse, where it was safe, so I did. And the next day, I… I buried her, buried you, and I drove. I drove and drove for days, until I was falling asleep at the wheel. I was a wanderer. I never stayed in one city for more than a week. I’d find a place to squat, meet some people, do a couple odd jobs, then get the hell out of dodge. Because I knew that if I stayed in one place, I’d never be happy. Because I wouldn’t have you there with me,” she finished in a whisper, tears leaking from her own eyes. Max sat in stunned silence for a moment before Chloe spoke again.

“And then, somehow, this happened. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but it definitely isn't a dream. It’s more than that, it’s more tangible, I guess, more…”

“Real,” Max finished, barely able to force the word through her vocal cords. Chloe nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah, more real. I was here last night, talking to you. Maybe a different version of you than this you,” she paused, and took a deep breath. “I think there’s a way for you to come into this reality, to somehow pass through and come to me. Then we could have our life together. We could be happy, Max,” she was almost pleading now, and for the first time, Max heard all the pain in Chloe’s voice. She had watched her own version of Max die, just as Max had watched “her Chloe” die. They were both broken, but they could make each other whole. 

“What if me coming into your reality destroys it, though? What if something worse than the storm happens?” Max asked, which made Chloe take both of Max’s hands in her own, staring into Max’s eyes.

“Max, I’ve lost so much already. I’m willing to lose everything just to spend even five more minutes with you. Please, we have to try,” Chloe begged. Max closed her eyes for what felt like hours, but when she finally opened her eyes, nothing had changed. Chloe was still in front of her, she was still in Chloe’s bedroom. With a heavy sigh, Max nodded. 

“Do you know what we need to do?” She asked, trying to ignore the pounding in her head. 

“Uhh, I have a couple theories. I still have this,” Chloe said, rummaging around in her jacket for something, eventually pulling out her wallet. She opened the wallet to reveal the butterfly photo, the one Max had taken in the bathroom. “I think maybe, _ maybe,  _ if you do your focus thing on this while we’re in here, it could take you between realities. And then you could just choose to hop into my reality. I think,” she finished, looking at Max with concern. Max shut her eyes again, the throbbing in her head feeling like her skull was about to split open. 

“Chloe, I - I don’t know how much longer I can stay here,” she muttered, holding her hands to her head. Chloe’s eyes widened in concern as she fumbled in her wallet for the picture. 

“We better hurry, then. Here,” she handed Max the picture, who grabbed it without looking. “Just, if this does work, please make sure you come to the right version of me, I guess. When you disappear from here, I’ll wake myself up. Hopefully that should make it easier.” Chloe sounded so confident, but Max shook her head, her eyes watering from the pain.

“C-Chloe…” she mumbled, but Chloe grasped her shoulders, shaking her slightly.

“Max, please! I need you here with me, please!” Chloe cried. Finally, with great effort, Max nodded and slowly opened her eyes. The pain felt like it was going to kill her, but she managed to focus on the photo of the butterfly, her vision went blurry, and then. 

Nothing. She was nowhere. An empty, white void. Chloe was gone, her room was gone. There was nothing.  _ Am I dead?  _ Max thought to herself. She was able to see herself if she looked down, so that must have meant something. Suddenly, a door appeared in front of her. The door to Chloe’s room. Max felt her heart rate suddenly increase as she slowly walked towards the door. She grabbed the handle, turned the knob… 

Chloe opened her eyes lazily, her head pounding. Somewhere to her left, there was music playing softly, the smell of coffee… her heart skipped a beat. She slowly turned her head to the left.

Max was sitting in an armchair in the corner of the motel room, fast asleep with a freshly brewed cup of coffee next to her. She looked exactly like Chloe remembered, even her shoes were the exact same. Slowly, Chloe sat up, trying to say something, anything. Finally, she was able to croak out a single word.

“Max?” Suddenly, Max jolted awake, her eyes wide in terror. 

“C-Chloe?? Did it work?” She asked quietly. Chloe slowly walked towards Max, who stood up cautiously. Gingerly, Chloe put a hand on Max’s shoulder. Chloe’s lips went dry.

“Y-you feel real… you look real,” she whispered. Suddenly, Max grabbed her head, almost screaming in pain as she fell to the floor, blood flowing from both her nostrils. Chloe dropped to her knees to catch Max, her eyes filling with tears.

“Max! You’re ok, you’re here, Max please,” she begged, running her fingers through Max’s hair. Max reached for Chloe’s face, her fingers barely touching Chloe’s cheek. Chloe pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket and put it in Max’s hand before leaning down towards her, their lips brushed against each other… 

Max sat bolt upright in her bed, drenched in sweat. She was back in her dorm at Blackwell. Alone.

“No… no, no, please,” she muttered, not bothering to wipe the blood running down her face from her nose as she looked around her room desperately for any sign of Chloe. “Please, Chloe…” she cried, pulling her knees towards her chin, tears rolling down her face. “I need you, please…” It couldn’t have all just been a dream. She saw Chloe, she touched Chloe. There was a knock at her door.

“Max? Are you ok?” Kate’s voice was muffled by the door, but Max knew what it meant. She wasn’t in Chloe’s reality. It was a dream. It took almost five minutes for Max to notice the slip of paper laying on her bedsheets. Slowly, she unfolded the bloodstained paper and instantly recognised Chloe’s handwriting.

_ May 11, 2014 _

_ Max, _

_ I don’t even know why I’m writing these anymore. As a form of therapy, I guess? It’s helped a little, but it still hurts waking up every morning without you.  _

_ I had a dream last night. Well, I don’t know if it was really a dream. I was back in Arcadia Bay, in my old bedroom, before it got torn to shreds in the storm. And you were there. Not like a weird, dream version of you. It was really you. I could touch you, I could talk to you. I remember it all so clearly. You talked about how much you missed me and how fucked up you were now. And then… you said you loved me.  _

_ Max, I don’t know if that was just a fucked up figment of my imagination or what, but if it was real, I’ll find you again. I swear. I won’t stop until we’re together again. And until I find you, I’ll wait for you. I won’t move on, I can’t. I’ll always love you. _

_ Always. _

Max held the letter close to her chest as she laid back down, curled up into a ball. She could still hear Chloe’s voice in her head.

“Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I felt the urge to write some angst, so I quickly bashed this out after reading the Life is Strange comic. I'm working on chapter 3 of Overcoming Obstacles now, so that should hopefully be done within the next few days. As always, kudos, comments, shares, etc. are always appreciated, thanks!  
> Follow me on twitter: @DARKROOMMAX


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